There are two main reasons why I decided to quit eating most chocolate. The first reason has to do with the fact that almost all chocolate sold in the United States was produced by slaves. Much of it is made in the West African nation of Ivory Coast, where child slavery is notorious. Now, contrary to what you may be thinking, I did not quit eating chocolate as a political boycott against chocolate makers. I know that the situations would only get worse for slaves if there was a massive boycott of most chocolate. I stopped because my conscience was bothering me. Why should I personally support slavery?
I must admit that not eating chocolate is hard. If I’m remembering right, I stopped eating chocolate around Mother’s Day this year, so around May ninth. Since then I have had chocolate in some form about four or five times. None of those times was because I just had a strong craving, or I jut couldn’t not eat the chocolate, each time was simply because I just forgot. Yes, though it may seem strange, I am saying that for me, the hardest part of not eating chocolate is remembering that I’m not eating chocolate.
I was thinking about this the other day, and I realized that it would be hypocritical to keep telling people that I don’t eat chocolate because I feel strongly about the use of slave labor when I keep forgetting and eating chocolate. I realized that even if I still do believe that it’s wrong for me to support slave labor, I don’t feel strongly enough to remember not eat chocolate. So, is there any reason for me to keep up this personal boycott? I think there is. I have decided that while I will not to eat chocolate, the reason will not completely be “because I don’t feel right about it.” I will also use it as a reminder that God blessed me so much by putting me in the circumstances I’m in, and I need to remember that others are not as fortunate as me.
Now, let be address something. I’ve been saying “most chocolate,” or “some chocolate” throughout this post; here’s the reason why: some chocolate is not made by slaves. Usually if it is not made by slaves, it will have a “fair trade” logo on the packaging. I believe the logo should look like this:
“Fair trade” means that the distributors of the chocolate make sure that the workers that farm the cocoa are being paid fair wages. I do support fair trade chocolate. Unfortunately, I do not know of any places around here that sell fair trade chocolate. That being said, I must admit I haven’t been looking very hard, because I’m not really in any dire need of chocolate right now.
Anyway, these are my two main reasons for not eating non-fair trade chocolate. I hope that they are logical, and that I have given you a clear picture as to why I’m not eating some chocolate, but would eat other chocolate.
Cheers!
Lauren
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